PayPal is expanding services available to its Ukrainian users and waiving fees to help with humanitarian efforts in the country during the ongoing Russian invasion. Ukrainians will be able to send and receive PayPal or Xoom peer-to-peer payments, according to a press release, and the company will not charge its usual fees on both sides of the transaction (h/t CNN Business).
PayPal also reports that it gives Ukrainians the opportunity to transfer money from their accounts to Mastercard and Visa cards. Citizens who have left the country will also be able to access these features by creating a Ukrainian PayPal account. The company says Ukrainians will be able to send and receive funds in US and Canadian dollars, as well as British pounds and euros. (The official currency of Ukraine is the hryvnia.)
This change gives Ukrainian customers more options
PayPal confirmed to The Verge that before the change went into effect on Thursday, Ukrainian customers could only send cross-border transfers, but not receive them. PayPal did not directly answer why they could not receive the money before – a representative of the company, Tom Hunter, only said that “the functionality varies depending on the market” based on “a number of factors.” According to the company’s announcement of its efforts in Ukraine, Ukrainian customers were able to receive funds from friends and family in the US, Canada, the UK and other parts of Europe through PayPal cash and prepaid mobile phone recharge.
PayPal notes that the changes, including the removal of fees, are in effect for a limited time – currently they should only be in effect until June 30, 2022. But as the situation “evolves”, PayPal says it reserves the right to make any changes, but will post a notice on its site if or when it does.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov is actively appealing to many technology companies to help Ukraine and cut off communication with Russia. According to the letter he posted on Twitterhe approached PayPal to expand services in the country before the company made changes.
Fedorov also successfully sought help from companies such as SpaceX, tweeting to Elon Musk asking him to supply Starlink satellite internet dishes to Ukraine, and a few days later he posted a photo of a truck full of devices.
Earlier this month, PayPal suspended most of its services in Russia shortly after it stopped accepting new users from the country. (At the time, the company said it would “continue to work on processing customer withdrawals over a period of time.”) International sanctions have limited Russian citizens’ access to other financial services such as Apple and Google Pay, as well as a system that helps many international money transfers.